Talk to Homebase about your Christmas hosting top tips and/or nightmares and you could win a £300 Homebase voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

As Christmas approaches and planning for Christmas events begins, Homebase is keen to hear about Mumsnetters' best and worst experiences of Christmas hosting - whether it's Christmas parties, having relatives to stay or even hosting the big day itself.

Homebase says: "Christmas is all about getting together with the most important people in our lives. It's a great feeling when loved ones come round to enjoy the fun and festivities- but it can be hard work sometimes too. Preparing food, getting your home looking fabulous, making sure everyone's having a good time ... the festive season comes with its own challenges and things don't always go to plan. We'd love to hear your stories of 'hosting heaven' and 'hosting hell'. Tell us about your Christmas disasters and triumphs, share your tips, fill us in on the fun times and let us know what you're planning this year."

Do you have any top tips to make Christmas hosting go as smoothly as possible? Maybe you create a time plan to make sure everything's done on schedule? Or have you had a nightmare that's put you off Christmas hosting for life?

Share your stories - good and bad - on this thread and we'll enter you into a prize draw where one MNer will win a Homebase voucher worth 300 pounds.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

take the hassle out of things by starting early. i usually start in oct as both argos and sains have toys sales or offers. I buy adults on line so i dont have to go round shops and then im all wrapped by middle/end of November. Then i have my Christmas food shop delivered a few days before.you can book a slot 3 weeks before you want it delivered so i always mark it on the calendar. Thats it my stress free christmas.

Plan in advance. Christmas is a really busy time for us and the only way that we can get through it easily is with careful planning. We aim to post cards and presents a week prior to the last posting day, so that if anything goes wrong we have some time to spare. We plan our menus for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and prepare as much as possible in advance. On the day itself we try to keep everything relaxed. We don't panic if dinner runs late, the day is for family enjoyment.

Only invite people to your Christmas festivities if you are comfortable with them seeing you in pjs with your house a mess :P

Make sure you know of everyone's allergies or food preferences to reduce stress on the day. If someone is allergic to gluten then make a glutenfree Christmas pudding/make glutenfree stuffing so everyone can eat the same. There will be no complaining at the table if you don't put anything on anyone's plate that you know they dislike. It all makes for a more relaxed atmosphere.

Always have something in the cupboard/freezer/fridge to substitute for any cooking which goes wrong.

Plan, plan, plan.

My hosting is full of disasters and nightmares - I spill, I break, I burn, I do it all wrong - thus I avoid hosting..

Plan plan plan, lots of lists and spread the present and none perishables shopping is what I do for a good year.

The only year I didn't Christmas was a disaster as I was sooo stressed.

This year it will be get a new oven before this one dies completely. That would be a disaster

Our cat ate the defrosting turkey one year- my mum has to cut the chewed bits off so we could have Christmas lunch!
My top tip is get all the vegetables prepared and frozen. Even roast potatoes come out amazing with no peeling on Christmas Day!

The first (and last) time I tried to host Christmas was when I lived in an African country where most of the people had very different traditions and Christmas ideas and, erm, celebrated Christmas at a different time from the Western calendar. I'd read somewhere about BBQs for Christmas and it just seemed like the most exciting, 'alternative' idea ever.

There were a number of flaws to this plan.

1. Six weeks before Christmas, the President of the country had an argument with all neighbouring countries. They all responded by refusing to allow lorries destined for my city to travel through their country. This meant that our food options were limited to red lentils, red onions, potatoes, chillis, beef (chewy), but as much fruit as I wanted. This limited the menu somewhat. As we had guests coming from the UK, however, we gave them a substantial shopping list and asked them to go to the supermarket and bring out some tins with them.

1. We had problems with electricity. We had day-long powercuts on alternate days....but couldn't guarantee that we would be able to get enough meat for the BBQ on Christmas Day itself. We ended up freezing bottles of water and packing them around the meat as we built up a stockpile over several days. We also crossed our fingers a lot.

1. We didn't have a BBQ and we quickly realised that we wouldn't be able to find a ready-made one. We tasked some local boys with arranging to get one made. They had never seen one, didn't understand its purpose and had to communicate this to people who were going to be making it....who, similarly, had never seen one and didn't understand what it was for. The first design we had was great, and looked just like my drawing, but was completely in miniature. It was about 6 inches high. We used it for making coffee in the end (and it was blimmin' useful in all those powercuts!).

The second one was more successful, but by this stage the project had attracted a lot of input and attention. There were thirty or forty people sitting around and watching the building process- all offering their suggestions and advice. The brick base ended up very good----but the grill had gaps between each of the individual pieces of metal which were more than an inch apart. Any kebabs, and probably the burgers too, would just slip through. We solved this by just putting a metal tray on top.

1. We had nothing but local alcohol because of the rather awkward trade embargo. This was fine for beers, but some of our UK guests only drank wine. I have a very high tolerance for poor wine- but you needed to grip onto your chair and brace yourself in order to down a gulp of this stuff. We added 'mulled wine' sachets to UK shopping list in a feeble attempt to mask the taste.

It ended up being the most amazing party. We had a lot of local guests, many of whom had heard tales of our weird preparations and were very intrigued. They tried the mulled wine, but I saw quite a few people wincing when they thought I wasn't looking. Eventually somebody brought round a homebrew of the local honey-based drink. Later in the evening a few people confided, sympathetically, that they didn't think much of this crazy Western drink, 'wine'. The burgers with homemade tomato ketchup (couldn't buy any, could I?) and tinned cheese were very popular, as were the chilli lentil burgers and kebabs.

(But the best Christmas of all was when the country's Christmas actually came around and we got to celebrate at somebody else's house. Double Christmas!)

I always shop in the sales.. I'm in there as soon after Christmas as poss, stocking up on pressies for next Christmas! Jumble sales & are boots are great for unwanted pressies which are good as new & cheap as chips.
I have already wrapped pressies for LO & Grandparents (whom we are spending Christmas with) have taken them to their house to store so they aren't discovered before the big day!
All the supermarkets run excellent half price toy events - Asda has one on now & Sainsbury's has just ended I think - they're great for picking up cheap toys. It's always worth adding items to your basket on Amazon, as each time you log in - it will tell you if an item has decreased or increased in price, & how much by.
I complete surveys online throughout the year, which I get vouchers for - I save them up & then spend them in M&S on food & in the sales!

use club cards to top up extra to save through out the year and look out for sales, plus if you are buying bikes for children try and get them ordered by the end of October before they get there new stock and hike the prices up for Christmas

My top tip is to make sure everybody knows what is expected of them, whether that be what food they should bring to a get together or what price limit has been set on presents. Communication is always the key to avoiding stress at Christmas!

Worst Christmas: the inlaws ( or should that be outlaws?). I was pregnant with my daughter & managed to last until 10.30pm. The inlaws & brother/sister-in-law all stayed up till 2.30am, drinking champagne. So when our 4 year old got up at 8am to see if Santa had been, they were all still sleeping in bed. At 9.30, our brother/sister-in-law took the dog out for a 1.5 hour walk. If it hadn't been icy & freezing cold, I would have taken my son to the local play park, as he was bored. He finally opened his presents at midday. Needless to say. I have avoided going back there again.

Christmas tips: everyone takes a share. We all divide up the meal preparation, setting the table, loading the dishwasher. So we all get a chance to relax & enjoy watching the children open their presents. We have been known to eat chocolate for breakfast . And Champagne. It's all very relaxed & fun. As it should be.

I think it is a fine balance between timing and being prepared and more importantly - BEING YOURSELF and being relaxed..... None of my friends or family would put pressure on for everything to be perfect and there really is no point in hosting if you are not relaxed and enjoying it yourself. I write out a step/time by time schedule for cooking and apart from that I go with the flow with a HO HO HO

Hosting hell: getting flu as I sat down to Christmas dinner apparently I turned green and then had to go to bed not eating any of the expensive free range turkey DH had organised. In one sense it was lucky though as the heating had broken the day before so I didn't even notice that anymore! I also lost half a stone over the Christmas period instead of gaining any.

We have a pre-Xmas get togther with friends on the sunday before christmas where everyone brings some food and it's so lovely and relaxed before the big event, we have people coming in fancy dress as reindeers and snowmen and one year we even had a Mary and joseph turn up with their new-born(ish) baby, we have christmas music on and the children enjoy it just as much as the adults and then Christmas is spent with extended family and the secret to a succesful one is preparation and delegation [santa]

Prepare everything in advance. Opt for a simple starter and freezeable pudding. Plan a timetable for what needs cooking/turning on at what time.
We had a disaster one year when I sat on the CHristmas gateaux!

Main tip - go to someone else's house!

My main tips are lots of planning, and doing as much of the preparation on Christmas Eve, so I don't have to spend Christmas Day peeling sprouts, potatoes and chestnuts.

I also try to do some things well ahead and freeze them - this week I will be making and freezing braised red cabbage, and apple sauce (we have goose). I've already got stock from a duck carcass in the freezer, to make the basis of gravy (with more from the giblets).

I also boil and glaze a gammon on Christmas Eve, and that, with baked potatoes and coleslaw, is the meal for Boxing Day, so I get an easy day after all the cooking if Christmas Day.

Some years ago we really did have the Christmas nightmare to end them all! We'd invited my boss and his new partner - a lovely German man keen to experience a British Christmas (that's a omen right there!) - and we'd pulled out all the stops. Roast fillet of beef bought in advance and vacuum pre-packed, all the fine wines, champagnes, home made traditional pudding - the works. Two days before both DH and I came down with that debilitating flu that wipes you right out. We thought we'd try to soldier on but by Christmas eve neither of us could get out of bed! Rang friends to explain and I was fervently hoping they'd cancel or tell us not to go ahead. Big mistake! They said they were looking forward to it so much that they'd chip in and help with cooking etc. Of course, we were too British and too polite to say otherwise!
Christmas morning we unwrapped the fillet of beef to a stink more usually associated with a long dead animal in a forest. We were both so ill already - I couldn't taste anything but I sure could smell that rotten meat!
Friends arrived to find DH gone back to bed and me in tears in the kitchen whilst DS - seizing his opportunity - ran wild!
Well - somehow we made it through although it was an unintentionally vegetarian Christmas. It might have tasted good, it might not - I really couldn't tell.
What I have learned from that is to NEVER trust that everything will be ok on the day - check, check and check again and always have backup in the freezer. Oh - and gin cocktails definitely help!

The year that the coffee was made too strong, the cake was accidentally knocked over so the dog ate it and everyone seemed to be determined to argue with each other, was pretty bad! We laugh about it now, because we usually all get on well, but it felt disastrous at the time!

I actually try and keep things relatively simple. I used to try and do everything and make it all perfect but it never worked. Now I use a much more relaxed approach to it all and don't worry if things go wrong. The main thing is too just enjoy it.

I spend the week before christmas baking mince pies and other christmas cakes and pastries with the kids. Its a great way to unwind at the beginning of the school holidays and spend quality time with the kids in the run up to the big day.

Gosh, reading some of these comments makes me feel like I should be making much more effort!

I try to keep things as simple as possible. I wrap presents in batches, as early as I can. I spend several entire days wrapping usually. This year there won't be much to wrap, as we're not buying for adults, and the kids want money to choose their own presents later. So the only wrapping really will be stocking fillers.

Christmas decorations usually go up at the beginning of December, but we are having a new kitchen fitted two weeks before Christmas, so goodness knows when the house will be back to normal, never mind decorated!

Christmas dinner is really just a normal Sunday dinner with a few extras, and Mr Ellis usually cooks this, so I just help out! We usually buy extra drinks/chocs/cakes etc in the run up to Christmas, but again because of the new kitchen, we have nowhere to store extra stuff this year, so shopping will be a bit last minute.

I think my main tip would be to remind people that it's meant to be a time that we enjoy, so keep it simple and let yourself relax.

Be prepared and keep it simple so I can relax on Christmas Day with family, start buying pressies early but don't go overboard, if inviting others maybe they can bring a dish so everyone participates so less stress all around. Enjoy and remember what Christmas is about and try to remember those less fortunate.